Play is not just play for play's sake. It is a child's opportunity to interact with the world and the people in it. Both Vygotsky and Piaget would say that cognitive development would stem from different forms of play (Berk, 2008). For instance, playing with toys (Piaget) and interacting with peers, possibly in a game or dramatic play (Vygotsky, 1976) would participate in cognitive development. In addition, children who enjoy pretending score higher on tests of imagination and creativity (Ross, 1981). Vygotsky, (1976) saw plays engage children in a thinking process, develop reasoning faculty and imitation of social interactions. Mentioned that two essential ingredients of play are the involvement of the thinking processes and repetition of social interactions. Vygotsky, (1976) mentioned that two essential ingredients of play are the involvement of the thinking processes and repetition of social interactions. Play is the foundation of academic learning. Pretending play assists young children in separating meaning from objects and thus manipulating the meaning them-selves. Further Parten, (1932), a pioneer in studying sociability among 2–5-year-old, noticed a rise with age in interactive play. It was stated by Parten that social development happens within a three steps sequence:

(1) Non-social activity, unoccupied, onlooker be-havior, with solitary play the observant role.

(2) Parallel play, a narrow way of social participation, where the child plays close to other children using similar materials while not trying to influence the other children’s behavior. Imitation without engage-ment.

(3) Participation with the game, Cooperative play, in which children interact together to achieve a common goal.

Later research indicated that Parten's play types did emerge in the order she presented, but also that all of the kinds of plays coexist in early childhood (Berk, 2008). Ruben et al. (1983) identified three categories of play: functional play, constructive play, and make-believe play (Berk, 2008). Functional play involves simple, repetitive play movements, constructive play involves constructing somethings, and make-believe play involves acting out both imaginary and everyday roles (Berk, 2008). There are gender differences in social play, according to Frost et al. children show gender differences in their social play. For example, boys engage in play that is less mature than girls play, they engage often in solitary-function play and rough play. Girls like to spend their time in quiet activities such as peer conversation and parallel and constructive play.

Table 1: Parten's Three Steps Sequence through Children Develop Socially.

Parten, 1932; Vandenberg, 1983

Play is most important for the children’s development and learning. Piaget saw play to be a reflection of what children have already experienced. As a result, social pretend play helps children develop emotional control and discipline at their competence. From Vygotsky's point of view, play reveals the strongest match of children’s development although according to Piaget pretend play is a process that distorts reality. The point of pretend play is to allow them a chance to act out scenarios they don't understand. Vygotsky saw pretend play to be an area where children can perform to the highest degree possible. Vygotsky also views play as a safe environment to experiment with new things. Furthermore, Vygotsky also saw that education takes place in the Zone of Proximal Development, which is the zone between what young children can do without help and what the child can only do with adult assistance. In that zone lie challenge and a zone in which the child can improve. Pretend play lie in that zone in which the child can negotiate and tries to make sense of the situation that she sees in the real world of adults, simplified and enacted. Challenges and Pretend play lays in that zone which will help the child grow and try to navigate their way in situations that they will see in the real world as adults, Streamlined and executed. Thus, Piaget's and Vygotsky’s theories can be used to guide this study because of their underlying assumption that learning, and development can take place through play.

To develop socially, children need to connect with peers. According to Rubin and Thompson, (2003) there are three main levels underlying becoming friendship for children: Openness: An indication that a child is interested in becoming a friend to another child could be, for example, a mere greeting with warm smile, another indication is acts of kindness by doing nice little gestures towards the potential friend. This level is a way to show other children that they are interested in becoming friends. The second level is similarity. According to Kenneth H. Rubin, Andrea Thompson, children tend to become friends with other children who perceive they are similar to them, and they can connect with in terms of age, gender and ethnicity, shared interest, social skills and academic achievement. Children at this level need to find common grounds with peers whom they are interested in becoming friends with and things they enjoy doing together. The third level is shared activity. Children become friends by doing things together, this includes playing together. Unstructured time together is particularly important for them because they have more freedom to become spontaneous in choosing their activities together, which could lead to a deeper connection.

  Teachers' and Pre-Service Educators' Perspective about their Role for Supporting Play

  Teachers' definitions of play determined if they implemented play in their classrooms and how. Sherwood and Reifeln, (2010) focused on their study on seven teachers’ perspectives and definition of playdata were collected through interviews, document collection, and note observations. The study results that teacher defined play differently. The study shows majority of teachers had their own meanings of play and what formed to be play which caused there to be different thoughts of what exercises are considered play. This shows that even though there are similarities between the attributes among participates it did not possess an all-encompassing understanding of play. Ranz-Smith saw that children in school maintain a schedule like how adults do. Ashiabi, (2007) stated in her review article that play is a crucial part in a child’s socioemotional development, that is important for children’s academic readiness. Ashiabi and Ranz-Smith both saw that educator’s belief on play to be vital to children’s development and learning and is disincentive to educators’ efforts when carried out into the classroom. Ranz-smith, (2007) stated in her study how educators specified play determined how its carried into the classrooms. Rnaz-smith instructed an examination in educators' beliefs about play and its role in children’s learning and development. She interviewed approximately four first grade teachers f from varied socioeconomic backgrounds, with at least 3 years of teaching experience utilizing a format that is qualitative of phenomenological interviews, although all of the teachers believed in the value of play Eanz Smith founded that only one used it in the classroom. One teacher defined play in the sense of “work-play” she executed straight forward play in teaching. Leaving children-initiated play is limited during recess. while educators who specified play to be chosen spontaneous and optional as an outcome of the child taking initiative, even though they thought play to be very important in children learning they did not execute it as much in the classroom as their directed learning, this was seen to be intrusive to the time limitations and the management of their classroom during the school day, which is concentrated on the guide of their curriculum and manual for teaching. This study further found that educator’s perception of professionalism is challenging. They found themselves obliged to follow what was directed in the teaching manual and curriculum guide. 78 kindergarten teachers were surveyed about play, Lynch, (2015) stated that a major issues that educators face is the pressure of the district on the teachers to give less attention to play and more on academics in the classroom. Researchers concurred on teachers' view of parental and administrative resistances to execute child-initiated play in the classroom during the teaching day. Thus, they saw the necessity of the development of courses to facilitate understanding of teacher perceptions of the dynamic between play and learning in the schooling’s curriculum.Fesseha and Pyle, (2016) studied educators' outlook on play, but different from Ranz-Smith, (2007) their main focus was on kindergarten teachers as the study contributors. The intention of their research was to find out how in-service kindergarten’s teacher defined how play-based learning collides with their classroom exercise. The researchers looked into the responses of 101 partici-pants (Ontario kindergarten teachers) and followed a five-point Likert Scale. The research figured out that two definitions of play occur: one aimed at children 's social development through play; another focused on educational and social development through play. Approximately 91% of teachers concurred that play has always been a part of their teaching style while in the classroom. Being the other 19% of teacher’s recognized play-based learning as have been common part in their kindergarten education, and 41 percent of teachers saw play as only to be beneficial for social development disregarding the educational skills Thus, they have not implied play-based learning; although, teachers have incorporated play in their teaching with no purpose integrational of educational skills. Mean-while, 59 percent interpret play as a parallel development of educational and social skills. One teacher shared the definition of the latter which saw "play as a child-centered approach to learning that encompassed social, emotional, cognitive, and academic development in kindergarte" (Fesseha & Pyle, 2016, p.367).

  Furthermore, Moreover Jung and jin’s, (2015) study endeavored to understand the role of play course work in college and the way later teachers are influenced which affected their viewpoint on play and their purpose in teaching it in their classrooms to find out if there was a connection between college coursework on play and future professionals positive outlook about play and elevating the focus of play integration. The study’s participants were 211 college students, 179 females the results to the study’s questions were thoroughly examined by the multiple arranged reversion model. The research found that coursework inclined to predict future educators’ intentions in a positive manner to incorporate play in their classroom. Therefore, Students who were involved in courses that included play in college would most likely include play in their classrooms in the future; and they had powerful intentions in incorporating play in their learning. Also, it appeared to have weak purposes among future educators who did not take courses related to play in college. Furthermore, 2 Jung, Zhang and Zhang, (2017) researched whichever outlook of play of pre-service educators in effect has a dynamic to their intent to incorporate play in their teaching in the future. They gathered 337 participants for this research from students who study education and child development. The study established, in a manner, Ranz Smith's, (2007) concluded that having a powerful positive outlook on play does not mean intending to use play in classroom practices.

Children love to play; they spend many hours playing. So, parents should use that to their advantage. Playing with children provides them with the opportunity to develop their language and imagination. Again, parents should choose the game that the child wants and can perform, following the child’s lead principle. The kind of play that parents can do with their children are: Functional type of play in which children explore objects around them and their functions, constructive play where children build something with blocks, and pretend play where a child with the use of his/ her imagination enacts things that he or she have seen, i.e. pretending to sell things or talking to a doll. Most importantly, when a parent interacts in a play or a conversation with the child, besides following the child’s lead, a parent must interact with the child face to face.

What parents and teachers can do to support children’s social skills?

It is important for parents to know if their child is making friends. Children love to play; they spend many hours playing. So, parents should use that to their advantage. According to McCollum and Ostrosky, (2008) and Moore and Lowenthal, (2011) parents can support their children in different ways:

1. Positive parent-child relationship; young children will grow in a healthy and secure attachment that helps them to have positive relationships with others.

2. Parents are the supervisors during children’s play. Parents can arrange playdates for their children and peers, monitor their activities, and supervise their interactions.

3. Parents provide opportunities for social interaction. For instance, parents can organize more opportunities for their children to get along with peers. Parents can help their children to connect with kids who share similar interests. Children usually get along with others who share similar hobbies, such as joining dance classes, swimming clubs, or soccer teams.

4. Parents may guide their children on the proper way to engage in a play activity with a kid or a group of kids. One of those ways is observing then blending. The kid watches what the other children are doing and then blends in without disturbing the flow of the game. The right way a child blends in is to avoid drawing attention to her. To blend in, a child should avoid asking to play because that may give the mean kids an opportunity to reject her. And if that happens, parents should instruct their child to walk away calmly, and try to join a different group or try the same group at a later time (Moore & Lowenthal, 2011).

5. Moreover, parents can support their child's friendship by encouraging her to have her friend come over for a play date.

6. Parents can talk with their children about feelings to help them understand their friends' perspectives and to empathize with them, which could lead to a deepening friendship relationship.

7. Parents may leave children time to be spontaneous because too much parental involvement ruins this spontaneity which is essential for children's play and so it ruins the fun, the whole point of play. However, friendship has its ups and downs. Laursen and Pursell, (2009) noted that parents have a role to play when conflicts occur between friends. They should teach their children to listen, explain and compromise. Parents should make it clear to their child that it is better to lose an argument and keep a friend.

Teachers incorporating play in the classroom will help children better understand and learn social-emotional skills. The development of social and emotional skills provide a base for children’s learning. The collabora-tion for academic social and emotional learning shows four crucial abilities; Social Awareness, self-aware-ness, self-management, and relationship skills. Educators can enhance these skills through play-oriented activities. It is significant that educators allow opportunities for children to be with their peers informally to play; provide planned times and activities when children can interact with one another freely. Such as structured activities in large groups. And, encourage a shy or hesitant child to play with a group. Teachers can support children inside the classroom who face social problems. For example, the child would not interact with other kids and always tended to play by herself or himself. In this case the child’s main problem is her shying away from social interaction. Consequently, I recommend that a teacher focus on this social problem and try to ignite her interest in dealing with others. The teacher may help her enroll in an activity that might interest her and suit her cognitive level. That way she can engage in a social interaction with children who would like to talk about the same topic this particular child may want to hear about. She will be very interested in taking the listener's perspective. Accordingly, a teacher may have an assigned buddy accompany her or him. She should try to find a buddy that shares some interests with her. They can meet for about one hour two times at the most weekly. I think two days is quite enough because we do not want them to run out of topics and then they start to bore each other; also, it would give them a chance to feel eager to meet again. In summary, the interval between each single meeting would give them a chance to process the feelings and conversation that was going on between them in the last meeting; and it would give them a chance to face new experiences that they will get to talk about in the next meeting. This method is very effective because subconsciously the struggling child may accept another way of looking at the world, the perspective that her buddy holds and communicate it to her. It would train her to accept other people the way they are and break the boun-daries that keeps her away and intimidated from interacting with others.

 On a further note, teachers can follow methods to help their children make friends. According to Kostelnik et al. (2015) children ought to learn the concept and the meaning of friendship Kostelnik et al. observed ways for caregivers to teach their children how to make and maintain friendship Kostelnik et al. noted the importance of role models where adults show the proper friendship skills. One way to bring that in the classroom is by showing video clips showing the various methods demonstrating friendship and teachers can apply them through role playing. Besides videos teachers may use puppets stories to highlight these positive behaviors and skills. Further, the Buddy System could be applied in the school context. It is 

one way in which children can practice this friendship relationship in a structured setting. For example, during buddy field day, the school pairs children together to have fun all through the day together. By the end of the day, even if the children started as strangers, they became close friends because of these happy moments they shared together. Adding up to the school arranged buddy field day, the teacher may add to the pair of the young children a child from a high grade, that child acts as a big brother or big sister. The big brother or sister guides the pair's play, he or she takes care of them and keeps them engaged. This also teaches the older child responsibility and leadership besides appreciation for friendship. Play is the child's pathway to understand social decorum and the child's gateway to healthy growth and positive interactions in the social context.

Table 2: Play Activities for Children's Social Development Skills in Classroom.

To conclude, social development is in fact necessary for children's moral development. It instills in children’s values that are necessary for social cohesion and helps to be socially fit adults (Healy, 2011). Play as such is for the children to understand social decorum and the child's gateway to a healthy growth and positive interactions in the social context. Further-more, the majority of the studies that were shown supported the idea that a play is crucial for children’s social, personal, emotional and academic develop-ment. To ensure that, Bissonnette and Haney, (2011) investigated educators' views on play to promote social, emotional and cognitive skills directed to include play in school curriculum. Their study gathered 117 participants (graduate and undergrad-duates’ students). The results showed that teachers with a higher level of education and experience have been associated with more awareness of the importance of play for the children’s growth and development, which impacts educators’ intention to indicate play in the classroom. Early childhood educators should incorporate more play learning activities in the classroom by following planning environment experience, and using more specific guidelines.Moreover, future researchers may do research aimed at pre-service teachers’ point of view on their role in supporting the idea of play for young children’s social development and learning.

I acknowledge all of the authors' involvement and works that I cited in my article.

There is no conflict of interest in this manuscript.